Hardships and Love
by TogetherSomewhere
Summary: This wil be a collection of SQ Oneshots that I manage to come up iwht because I am in the mood for writing short stories. Review or PM me prompts, and if asked ery niceley, I miht turn some of the oneshots into a twoshot. Maybe. Happy Reading!


**This was an assingment for school, but since it is an Sq story, I thought I could post it here for you all to see and read as well. If you would really want some more written out scenes of parts of this or something, just tell me and I see what i can do, but for now this is just a oneshot.**

 **Happy reading!**

 **x R.**

 **Hardships and Love**

The first time I saw her was when David and Hans decided to push me against the lockers to search my school bag filled with books for my lunch money and other things of value, the usual really. They had always been doing that and I thusly learned the lesson of keeping my mobile phone close to me in places they would dare to come close to.

She smiled at me. Something everyone avoids doing, since I'm the odd kid out I suppose. Maybe it's my glasses that are too thickly rimmed and keep sliding off of my nose, or the fact that I don't dress like the other girls do. Fact is, I'm not liked, at all. They like to bully me and avoid me, but not to hang out or even talk to me. Which is fine, I suppose. Being on my own is something I prefer anyway, I'm a lone wolf, not someone for much companionship.

Getting off topic here though. So this wasn't exactly the first time I had ever seen her of course, I mean who wouldn't look twice when a beautiful raven haired girl would walk past you, leaving the most delicious fragrance behind.

The real point of here is, that for the first time I truly _saw_ her. raven curls framing a face so delicate and beautiful, making deep brown eyes pop out of her beautifully fair skin that counted a few adorable freckles, not many, but those few that were there immediately caught my eye when she smiled at me. Those brown eyes for once focussed on my emerald ones. I saw her for the first time here because I could see every little detail on her face, and it made me want to softly trace my hand over those few freckles and feel the soft skin of her face slide beneath my palm.

That of course was something that could never, ever happen since she was so far out of my league it wasn't even funny.

Oh right, I'm Emma by the way. Probably the most nerdy girl in the school you would ever meet, spending most of my time on the library of the school scouring for new books to read, while also hiding for the jocks that would otherwise terrorize me. Calling me names or whatever. I'm got to it though, so you don't have to worry about that I guess.

The second time I saw her was that same day. In the lunch break actually. I was in the library as usual, my nose stuck in one of my new finds here, I think the book was called 'The Book Thief', I can't really remember because just as I was into the first twenty pages, two olive skinned hands stole the book out from under my nose and I looked up to find to deep brown eyes staring at me with amusement. The amusement could have been because my face looked rather baffled. In my defense, normally the book I am reading in peace does not get snatched away from my hands while reading it.

Her voice. Oh god her voice. I wish I had been hearing that my whole life long, so beautiful it was. Soft and melodic, gentle yet strong enough to convince me, A professional bookwurm, to lay down her book and talk to her. For your information, I don't like talking. It wastes precious time I could also use for reading or writing.

"Why are you here and not out in the canteen, eating, like everybody else?" Her voice asked as she sat down next to me. Which of course caused my stupid heart to literally stop beating or something, and my brain failed miserably as it couldn't function anymore. No words streaming from it to my mouth, so I was forced to sit frozen in my place looking at her dumbfounded.

Which she found hilarious apparently, as the most beautiful laugh I have ever had the pleasure of hearing echoed through the quiet library. Her eyes full of mirth as she put her olive toned finger under my chin and pushed it up so my mouth finally closed. Her single touch set my every nerve of fire as my brain continued to malfunction.

Soft fingers brushed a light blonde, almost white, strand of hair behind my ears as there suddenly broke a rosy blush out on the cheeks of the beautiful girl. Which was disastrous for my mind that was finally recovering from the first initial shock of being in her rather demanding, yet oh so gentle presence.

"Why are you here?" She asked me again and this time I was actually able to function well enough to form a response to her delicately asked question. Her eyes searching for an answer in mine, my heart pounding from the attention she was pouring onto me.

"I always sit here, it's quiet and my favourite things, called books, are here in abundance, why wouldn't I sit here?" I said. I doubted my answer slightly when I saw her bright smile bleed away from her face, the corners of her mouth slowly turning down as her eyes turned sad. I think it was sad, remembering details from that far back can sometimes be rather confusing since my whole mind was still a complete mess right then and there I suppose.

"Why wouldn't you want to sit with friends?" She asked then, curious, I can very clearly remember it was a question of curiosity, her eyes sparkling with the thirst for some new knowledge.

"I don't have friends, I'm not good at people, for that you need my sister Elsa." I answered simply, because that was the truth. People loved my sister, she was a popular kid that had all the boys, and some girls, fawning over her. It made me rather jealous. Not because of the boys that were fawning, I didn't care about the boys, never have. Girls however… I wished some of them could have shown interest in me too, but they, of course, didn't. Why pay attention to someone that gets called names, pushed against the walls or lockers, whatever is around really. Nobody would want that right?

"I could be your friend." She says. "I'm Regina by the way." She says and did something I had never expected, her fingers that were still against my face caressed it softly and her expressionate brown eyes lowered down to my lips before looking into my eyes again.

My mind was screaming at me that this was not a good idea, that my feelings would get too badly entangled into this. people all around us would start to hate her too if she was to be seen with the dyke of the school. That this would be more than a friendship because of the way the brunette just looked at my lips before looking at my eyes again, pupils dilated.

"You want to be friends with someone like me?" I asked perplexed, because that would be a logical response. The response I wanted to go for wasn't a good one, wasn't a smart one because I wanted to seal my lips against hers to know if they tasted like the fresh cherry scent she smelled like.

"Of course I do. You look like a nice beautiful girl, that would be an awesome friend." Those were the words that came out of her mouth but her eyes, oh those expressive eyes were telling me a whole other story, They were telling me how much of the friend part was really true. Her eyes roaming my face again, lowering to my lips once more, which provoked me to chew on my bottom lip with the ragged nerves that were soaring through my body.

I nodded, since I was afraid that if I were to move my mouth to talk, it would be too tempted to close the distance between the two of us.

Then the whole special moment we had going on between us was broken by the fact that one of the most ferocious bullies walked in. Hans Eisgarten. His family was german or something, owned a fortune and moved to America to give their little Hansie-boo the perfect life he apparently deserve... or something like that, I still hate his guts today for ruining the moment that could have been my first kiss. That moment will happen later but still, it was such a perfect setting.

Regina of course jumped away from me when his vicious voice rang through the air, shattering the bubble of perfect silence that had been created here. to my surprise though, Regina had only jumped away from me to stand protectively in front of me, telling Hans off. Which in turn miraculously worked as he turned on his heels, muttering some german curses under his breath as he left again.

The bell rang to signal the end of the break, and also the end of our second meeting. The start of something that would change my life forever.

The third time was under the apple tree. Well I say the third time, but it was actually the fifth. Only those two meeting were so short I don't like to count them amongst our meetings. Warning, this will be our first kiss. Although I shouldn't move ahead too fast I suppose.

We met there after our lessons were all over and she had slipped a note into my locker telling me to meet me at the spot that had become ours on the actual third and then fourth meeting. So of course I went there with a big smile on my face, even if the frost outside was about to literally freeze my face off. I should inform you, it was very close to christmas then.

When I walked up to the tree, she was already there waiting for me with a bright smile of her own. I don't know how, but in these short meetings we had grown close, perhaps closer than just normal friends. After the event at the tree we were definitely more than friends, but I didn't know that back then, did I?

When I came into hearing range she called out my name with glee and something else there, later I learned it was mischief. I walked closer and closer when I saw a strange kind of branch tied to a normal branch of the Honeycrisp apple tree.

When I was close enough for her delicate gloved fingers to grasp my scarf, she dug her fingers into the soft icy blue material and pulled me close against her, her warm breath close enough to hit my frozen skin and make me melt on the inside. Just when I was about to ask what this was all about I felt her soft lips press against mine and all I could do was tangle my gloved hands into her silky soft raven locks.

Like I said, this was the time I received my first kiss ever, and it was glorious. The cold of the winter completely forgotten as I was ignited into flames by the girl with the dark raven hair.

It was all so perfect. So blissfully perfect that it felt like a dream, the only thing reminding me that this was real were her fingers that grasped my face with one hand and my waist with the other. Fingers digging into my skin, but I didn't mind. I didn't mind it one bit.

We separated when both of our pairs of lungs were screaming or a new fill of oxygen, and breathlessly we looked at one another.

"Why did you kiss m-" I started to ask but a bright, mischievous smile broke out again as she silenced me and pointed a finger upwards. "Mistletoe." She whispered and then pecked my lips again. From that moment we were definitely more than friends. neither of us could deny that, and we didn't want to.

Reality crashed upon us when an icy snowball hit my back extremely hard and made me stumble into Regina, whom had no problem catching me before moving to stand in front of me, again the protective side coming out in her.

David, James, Hans and Sven laughing at us and calling me a filthy dyke again. screaming at me not to poison Regina with my filthy, perverse ways. Calling out to her she could still run from me now. That she could still avoid the curse that was me.

Being gay was not really something that was accepted here at this school yet, we were a bit behind on the modern times I suppose. Some teachers even refused to teach me because of who I am. I am not ashamed of it. Really I'm not. It just is hard to walk into a class and be sent out right away for who you are. It is like sending black people out of the classroom because they are black, it isn't fair to send a person away for something they cannot change.

So when a teacher came to see what the fuss was about and he saw how close Regina and I were standing together, he called out on us. Making clear how wrong it was. How this was something that should have never been allowed to exist in the first place. That we should just go away and die because of the person we loved.

Things turned pretty bad after that. We still secretly met under our tree, or at the almost abandoned library to steal kisses between and after classes. My sister knew about what I was doing, but didn't tell the teacher because 'We are still family, that has to mean something right?' But that was where her support ended. My parents thankfully accepted me for who I was, after three months of asking me if I really was sure about it.

Things went from bad to worse, when the people hacked away our tree. Our special symbol, our symbol of where our love had started. They destroyed it because they didn't want a contaminated tree standing there. Contaminated, apparently, by gay germs or something. After they had removed our beautiful tree, they had put the library off limits to during breaks and between lessons. you could only enter there with permission of the teachers, which of course wasn't given to us. We were what was wrong with the world. We were the problem, and if exterminated would make the world a better place. That was how they thought about the two of us. Like vermin.

The biggest setback was when Reginadecided she needed to tell her parents that the person she was dating wasn't a boy like they had thought, but a girl. It was also a slight blessing in disguise, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

She told her parents at ten thirty on a saturday morning.

She stood at my door with bags in trembling hands and tears running down her beautiful face at twelve thirty in the afternoon. A broken voice asking me if she could stay with us for a while, since her parents told her to never show her filthy lesbian face ever again.

It sounds harsh, but his was the blessing in disguise, because the time that got cut short at school, we now had in abundance every day after we got home from the hellish place called school.

But when she stood on my doorstep, or well my parent's doorstep, I engulfed her in a tight hug, her suitcases clattering to the ground as a sobbing brunette girl hugged me back, her tears wetting the jumper I was wearing, as her lithe body sank into mine.

Our roles were reversed this time. instead of her being my protector, I got to be hers that day, and it made me feel so good, to be able to protect and love the girl that had stolen my heart away the first moment those deep brown eyes looked into mine.

Our lips touched in a tender kiss, tasting rather salty as her lips were all wet from the tears that had run down them just second before that. It was the first time I ever saw her like that. So fragile and almost broken, almost. She had always been so incredibly strong in my eyes, still is, but I can never forget that one moment her eyes expressed so much pain, because the two people that were supposed to love you unconditionally had turned their backs on their own daughter.

My parents after I had a heated argument with them, while Regina already unpacked her things in my bedroom, accepted her into the household, to my delight of course. Because now I had my girlfriend, we had become official a few weeks before on New Year's eve, living with me. Now I was able to be with her so much longer than I normally had been able to.

It should have gone peachy from there right? Should have gone perfectly well since we were together more and we had each other to drag the other through ups and downs. It should have been good. It was meant to be good. Or that was always what I told myself. That we were meant for one another. That we were meant to be together forever, and ever. Never leaving to other.

It went good for a while. It went perfect between the two of us. In the nights we snuggled together in my Queen-sized bed until we fell asleep, and woke up to the shrill sound of my alarm and got ready for a day at should where we would have to keep ourselves in check until not a soul was watching us. It worked for a while. I think it worked for about eight months, but then, well then life decided that our relationship wasn't something that was ready for us yet.

Regina her father died. A heart attack. Sudden and fatal, death taking away someone, even though he had turned his back on her, she loved very much. Now her only family was a mother that didn't want to talk to her.

She closed herself off from everyone, including myself. She went from bubbly to silent. From smiling all the time, to drawing her lips into a tight straight line, no emotions showing what so ever.

Please believe me when I say that I tried, oh god knows how hard I tried to cheer her up. To make that breathtaking smile appear in her flawless face again. I managed it sometimes, peppering her with kisses or doing silly things. It made a smile appear on her face for a few seconds. Those were the seconds I seemed to live for then.

That went on for two more months. Two months living on smiles that were there for a few elusive seconds. But after a while, it got so exhausting. less and less smiles appearing. less and less frequently would the tips of her mouth turn up instead of down.

Then another big hit came. Not for her but for me this time. My parents and sister were in the car, driving back home after a party, when a drunk driver decided the red light he was supposed to stop for, wasn't meant for him and he sped right into the car of my family. in one hit, one single hit, I was an orphan with no parents or sister left.

It got really bad from there on out, because I wasn't 18 yet, and that meant I was sent to a foster home and Merida was sent back to her mother.

We broke up. The love of my life and I broke up. The world turned from colour, to a world of only black, whites and greys. The joy completely sucked out of my life.

Would you believe it if I told you, that for five whole years, until I was 21 I lived like that. In a black and white world, only half alive. missing the girl that had once poured so much life into me. Made my whole world shine so brightly I almost needed to wear sunglasses just to be able to bear how bright it all was. Imagine going from a world so bright, to a world so dull, you needed a flashlight to clearly see what was really happening around you.

But two days after I turned 21 I suddenly saw a flash of ravenhair. An shiny head of silky raven waves that made my eyes widen and a small whispered word leave my mouth in shock. "Regina?" It was so soft I didn't think anyone would hear it, but I was proven wrong.

She turned around and looked at me shocked. "Emma!" She said in that voice that was once again filled with glee. This was her bubbly self again. this was someone that enjoyed life again, and before I knew it, two strong arms wrapped around my frame and a choked sob left her mouth as her eyes took me in.

Before I was able to say anything though, two lips that were just as soft as I remembered them, captured my lips in such a tender kiss, it made my eyes tear up as well. probably just allergies though, I don't cry... No never...

Anyway, that kiss, that fiery, tender, loving, perfect kiss brought back the colours in the world again. as if it had been reinvented. Her hair seemed even more on beautiful than it normally was, which made me chuckle since I had thought that to be impossible.

Her arms almost crushed me as she hugged me tightly against her again, and tearfuldark brown orbs, pierced mine as she let out another sob, but the bright smile on her lips proved it to be sobs and tears of joy. Joy perhaps that she had found her lost love again.

We caught up with one another, apparently her mother had accepted her back home again, even if she didn't approve of her daughter being attracted to girls. At first I didn't dare to tell her about everything that had happened in the multiple foster homes I had been in, because those were nasty memories. Things I would rather not recount.

I recounted the nasty memories on a night I had a nightmare again, had been having them ever since all those things had happened. I think it was the seventh or sixth month after we got together again. As usual after a night mare, she shook me awake, asked no questions as she held me closely against her and told me everything was going to be alright.

That night I supposed that she finally deserved an explanation for why she was rudely awakened by my screams almost every night, it was a hard thing for me. Explaining why I flinched every time she slammed the doors a little bit too hard. Why I tensed every time I saw someone that looked like them.

After a deep cleansing breath I told her about what had happened. How I could still feel the ghost of their groping hands on me. How I can still feel the pain that pulsed through my veins as their fists hit my body. The despair that filled my body as I could do nothing but cry and try to forget the mental pain by drawing a sharp blade against the skin on my hip, where no one would see it.

White lines now marred that bit of my skin. But instead of being repulsed by them, as I thought she would be, she caressed them. pressed soft kisses to them to reassure me things like that would never happen to me ever again. not as long as she was alive.

It wasn't always perfect, our relationship. We had our fair share of fights. Fair share of slamming door and screamed words, that would ultimately end up in softly whispered apologies and soft kisses that were shared to make each other forget the hurtful things that had filled the air between us just hours before that.

It wasn't perfect, but it was perfectly us. It was perfect for what we represented, and I wouldn't have wanted anything else.

After another six months of being together, on our one-year anniversary We went to the spot we met each other again. A spot that was our new Appletree, for it was the spot we reignited the love for each other again.

What completely took me by surprise though, is when she went down on one knee and looked at me, while she delivered a whole speech, about how she could never go through another moment without me by her side, how she and I were meant for each other, and more things, but those are personal and only for me and her together, no others.

I, of course said yes, embraced her tightly and kissed her, before a cold ring was slid onto my finger, a rose gold ring with a small white diamond.

It was something I never expected that was possible after we had broken up six years prior to that. I had never estimated that that moment was a necessary evil so this perfect moment of bliss was able to happen.

We started planning our wedding right away, since it was early spring then, and we really wanted to get married in the winter. So that we still had a little of our apple tree moment with us. We even planted a Honeycrisp tree in the middle of our garden.

And I guess now we have arrived at the present time. One the day of our wedding. Regina and I both clad in a beautiful white dress. our hands forever entwined as we move forward from here, from this moment to make every other coming day a perfect one.

even if it will include fights, or shouting, or slamming doors, in the end we will always entwine our finger and whisper an 'I love you' to the other and it will be well.

not all love stories run smooth. Not all happen the way you want it to go. Hardships will come and go. There will always be bumps in the road, you wished would be smooth for once, But if you just bite through the hard parts, Love will find it's way back to you.

Love will always find it's way back to you.


End file.
